A Simple Spellcheck
by The Genius Mage
Summary: A rather cracky story written for Jaunea for her birthday, on a prompt she gave me. It tells the tale of a too-smart-for-his-own-good student and his annoying habit of being right all the time, even with teachers. Light Joshyme.


**Warning: Complete randomness and lack of my usual skill ahead due to a weird prompt.**

_~*A Simple Spellcheck*~_

Rhyme was in school, her third class of the day, the class before lunch, to be perfectly exact. She was in her English class, where she was attempting to write in fluent English, obviously. There was a miniscule problem, once upon a time, the sole fact that she was the only "freshmen" in the class, being very far ahead indeed in her studies. Around her were juniors and seniors, and she had once felt uncomfortable.

That all changed, praise the heavens, when Joshua unexpectedly showed up for her classes. The teacher was surprised by how fluent he was not just in English, but Spanish, Mandarin, French, and even German. The boy smiled as he sat with her, finishing his work in ten minutes while the others struggled in vain for the rest of the hour and a half.

Rhyme kept blushing and erasing any mistakes, no matter how small, as she tried to keep her handwriting smooth and elegant, despite the foreign characters. Joshua's amused purple gaze looked down at her work, rather impressed by how well she was doing. The teacher unexpectedly marched over, her pointed features and blonde hair uncomfortably reminding the girl of Konishi.

With a flourish the teacher, Ms. Mai, snatched the paper and held it up to her face, adjusting her glasses which had a long chain that connected to something in her shirt pocket. Her green eyes flicked over the work with a contemptuous look, and then her lips curled unpleasantly. Ms. Mai had the reputation for being the meanest teacher in the school, and today was no exception, especially with her recent divorce the weekend before.

"Ms. Bito," she drawled slowly. She lifted one perfectly manicured nail and traced the neat pencil strokes across the lined white paper. She leaned forward until Rhyme recoiled in her seat, with Joshua watching with a dangerously still expression as he picked up on the negative Vibes and the constant, thick swarm of Noise that hung around the teacher. "Spellcheck, damn you!" She hissed.

Rhyme blinked, whimpering slightly, "What did I do wrong?"

Ms. Mai straightened up, her lips twitching into another smile. "You spelled colour wrong."

"What?"

"_Colour. _It's spelled with a 'u', didn't you know that? Minus ten points."

Joshua cleared his throat rather loudly, earning the attention of everyone in the room. His smile was just like the classroom; clean, representative, and hiding something much more dangerous. "I'm afraid I can argue the point on that, Ms. Mai."

"I didn't ask your opinion, Mr. Kiryu."

"No, but I'm giving it anyway." Every gasped as Joshua stood up and smirked, and Rhyme recognized the sly glint in his eyes. Joshua knew the answer to something, and he considered himself already the victor. "May I see the paper?" He purred. Ms. Mai glared at him, but then smiled coyly in return, handing him Rhyme's poor paper.

Joshua slowly stroked the surface of the paper with a fingertip, mouthing the words silently to himself. A grin. Rhyme caught his look and smiled in return as he said, "You're wrong, Ms. Mai. Colour can also be spelled without a 'u'."

Ms. Mai had studied almost every angle of the English language, albeit in Europe. She glared at Joshua, her pride telling her to snap at the boy. "What?"

Joshua giggled, touching his face with one hand and casting his eyes toward Rhyme as he spoke. "In America, for example, which is a prime example of the English language; they do not spell words like 'color' with a 'u'. They also generally use the American spelling of things, such as 'gray', without the 'e' which is often used in Europe, I believe?"

Ms. Mai was stunned silent for a moment, and then she snarled, "Mr. Kiryu, this is _my_ English class and I demand she uses the correct spelling of colour!"

Joshua said back coolly, "I could write an intricate paper instead on how I believe both uses of color to be acceptable to the English language, depending on your location."

Ms. Mai sputtered something, angry at how flustered she was, unable to compose a reply. Joshua giggled, causing her to grit her teeth. She was considering strangling the ashen haired boy when Rhyme said, "Synonym."

"_What?"_ The pale teacher hissed in fury.

"I'll just use a synonym for color, okay?" The girl smiled serenely, attempting to placate the angry school teacher.

A pause.

"Do so, then. Mr. Kiryu, give me your paper!" Ms. Mai grumbled. She clenched Joshua's paper so tightly when he handed it to her that Rhyme thought she would shred it with her long nails. She scanned it and obviously was trying to find something to nitpick it over, but she became even more infuriated when she failed to see anything.

"_Spellcheck damn you."_

More silence.

"_Spellcheck damn you."_

Laughter erupted in the room as Joshua lifted his cell phone from under his desk, which was cheerily playing the voice of Ms. Mai within the room.

"No cell phones," Ms. Mai said triumphantly.

Joshua shrugged, twirling his orange phone. "Say what you want, I've already sent it to several friends of mine. I'm pretty sure scaring students and swearing is against the rules…_dear._"

Rhyme giggled as everyone else did too, and a look of dismay crossed Ms. Mai's features. She was a good teacher, but she couldn't afford any more warnings about her snotty attitude toward her students.

She said nothing, just turned on her heel and sat down at her desk, fuming and yearning to change Joshua's grade from a perfect A, but knowing there was really nothing she could do without the annoying boy finding some way to tell her superiors.

"You're insane, Joshua." Rhyme murmured as she erased the "offensive" color from her scenic description of a river, written in American styled English.

"Only for you." He giggled, and she only understood what he meant after the bell rang later.

~***~

Rhyme was surprised when she closed her locker and felt someone hug her from behind.

"Joshua," she accused. "What now?"

He grinned wickedly. "This way." Leading her back to Ms. Mai's classroom, he slowly removed his cell phone and showed her an imprinting screen. As Composer, he could very well use his powers in the RG, as well as the UG. He gradually clicked his phone, and Rhyme stifled a chuckle as she saw what the imprint was about.

Ms. Mai was talking to the Principle, who was reading her paper on something or other, Rhyme honestly didn't know. Joshua clicked the button, and evidently his imprints had a little more force in them than the Players did, because the Principle suddenly shouted, "Spellcheck damn you!"

Ms. Mai's face slackened in shock, and the Principle covered his mustached face with one large hand.

Rhyme sighed. "You're crazy."

Joshua held her close and smirked, performing caressing circles on her back. "Still, only for you. I hope she'll show a little more sense than to mess with you next time."

Rhyme turned and headed down the rapidly emptying corridors of the school, smiling slightly. "You know what today sounded like?"

"Possibly," replied the purple eyed Composer.

"Today sounded like some random idea from an even more random person."

Joshua opened the door for her, sinking into a mocking bow that was both charming and sarcastic. "Life is all an erratic idea, Raimu."

~***~

_**A completely, totally, made-no-freaking-sense oneshot I did for Jaunea for her birthday, using the prompt "Spellcheck damn it!"**_

_**I usually hate cursing but huh…Happy Birthday!!! Hope you had a nice Halloween too!**_


End file.
